Leslie Caron on TCM

Turner Classic Movies is dedicating this month to French actress Leslie Caron, an actress I am now discovering. When one thinks of beautiful French sex symbols one always thinks of Brigitte Bardot, but the years have been unkind to the latter. She became a very strange person, becoming a fanatical animal right's advocate and a xenophobic conservative.

In the other hand, Caron grew old gracefully, still making movies and tv appearances (she won an Emmy last year). And during the TCM interview one can see what a wonderful woman she is. And her movies hold up very well, from musicals such as "Gigi" to dramas such as "The L-Shaped Room".

So do yourself a favor and catch a couple of her movies Mondays night on TCM.

Phenomena

It's October and it has become a small quirk of mine to dig out old horror movies. And this weekend I dug up a movie by Italian director Dario Argento called "Phenomena". And this is really a strange one. It's a bout a girl (Jennifer Connelly) that goes to a private boarding school were there are a series of murders ocurring (but nobody seems to investigate them very much). She gets involved in discovering who the killer is through her unusual power over insects. There's also an avenging ape involved in this, but I won't get into it. This is a really atrocious movie deserving the MST300 treatment, but it is so weird in its awfulness that it keeps you watching. That and Jennifer Connelly, who is hypnotizingly beautiful.

Argento, a director of giallos (Italian slasher films) created some interesting movies such as "Suspiria"...but he seemed to have lost his touch ever since. Still, this is a cool movie to watch somehow. Just be warned, it makes no sense at all.

Jeremy

I'm a sucker for small, romantic movies. But lately they all feel the need to be quirky and strange. Like offbeat characters are needed to make a film like that special. Well, today I saw a film from 1973 called "Jeremy" about two shy 15 year olds who fall in love. There is nothing quirky on how they met, in fact they do in an extremely ordinary way. And everything else that happens is quite normal, and still the movie feels special. The movie portrays so well the confusion and ackwardness of that age. And in a way, we see ourselves at that age with all our problems and confusions. And any movie that is able to do that deserves praise.

Yes, the scene when they make love for the first time is not too realistic and yes, the soundtrack is kind of corny. But one can forgive that. And I thank the makers of this film for not pandering to the public with an unrealistic ending.

All in all, a nice little movie. They don't make them like this anymore. Which is a shame.

Polanski's "Repulsion"

There are movies that are worth revisiting. Roman Polanki's "Repulsion" is one of them. I guess because it is so unusual. A low budget horrror movie that was sold as a "Psycho" knockoff but that ended up being so much more. Whereas "Psycho" has become a kind of campy movie, a cool movie with a gimmick, "Repulsion" still works. Maybe because the mental illness portrayed in the movie is so real. And having gone through an anxiety disorder a couple of years ago. now it even feels more so.
What is amazing about the movie is how her condition is portrayed by using little twitches and reactions. It is never "here's the loonie" approach of "The Shining". It instead, anad Polanski says talks bout it in a documentary included in the DVD, shows that a person with that illness has various states, some in which the condition is more apparent and some in which the person looks completely normal. And it is amazing how well Catherine Denueve portrays this. It is a nuanced, extraordinary performance. And a brilliant achievement by Polanski.

Trips and life

It's interesting how traveling can open one mind to so many new things. During my recent trip to England and Scotland I saw many things of which I knew not much about. First, the history of the English monarchy. I visited the Tower of London, heard the guide talk about the Tudors and Anne Boleyn and quite frankly I was pretty much lost. Then I saw the crown jewels and I said to myself that maybe I should seek out movies and books that deal with this topic. So this weekend I am doing an English monarchy movie festival at home. I have "Elizabeth" with Cate Blanchett which is supposed to be a great film. I also have an older one called "Mary, Queen of Scots". And I have "The Other Boleyn Girl" on my DVR. So that should cover that.

On the way from Scotland to England, the tour guide began talking about the James Harriett books and I became very curious about them. They tell of life in Yorkshire during the 1940's and his life as a veterinarian in a small town. So I went to Borders and bought "All Creatures Great and Small". I have had absolutely no interest in these books before. But it's great when a trip abroad opens new horizons and makes one curious about new things.

I will write about the movies and the books on my next posting.

Man on the Moon

So it has been 40 years. My God. I was a little kid, but I remember that Sunday so well. Our family was on a Sunday pool party in Rio Grande and everyone was talking about what was going to happen that night. Man was going to walk on the moon. The excitement was so huge. I couldn't wait for the party to end so we could go home and watch the event on tv. And it was Via satellite which was a big deal those days. Only BIG events were shown via satellite in Puerto Rico. And this one was the biggest of them all. One of the biggest of all time. And I had a chance to see it!

Well, there was something of a letdown. The tv image was extremely poor. One couldn't see much. It was blurry and dark. We were not sure what we were seeing...was that Neil Armstrong? Is he walking on the moon? I expected the transmission to be all clear and crisp. Here was the biggest event in my lifetime and I could only see ghostly images!

But I didn't care. I was watching it. And days later, I rushed to the newsstands to get the Life magazine full of great photos. Photos that showed clearly what we didn't see on television. My lifelong love affair with all things NASA had just begun.

100 minutes

Someone once told me that when he felt life was becoming a burden, he would put a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie on his DVD player and every pain in the world would go away. He said it would work like magic.

Well, the other night I finally saw my first Astaire-Rogers movie. Hard to believe, but I had never seen one in its entirety. And I can see what my friend means. There is a joy, an innocence and a beauty in those old black and white movies that is truly magical. In the world shown in these movies, love conquers all and everything can be solved by a little bit of singing and dancing.
Life is not like that, but for 100 minutes it is. And what more can you ask of a work of art? 100 minutes of joy is a real gift.

snapshot

Listening to some guitar music.
Just being here.
And breathing.
Realizing where I am now.
Capturing the moment like I do when I take a photo.
A snapshot of me now.
How did it turn out?
It's a good one.
Yes.
See?

Goodbye Mr. Chips

I saw this movie when I was a kid. I remember seeing it at the Metro theater in San Juan. And I recall being bored to tears. 40 years later I absolutely loved this movie. It made me realize what a great actor Peter O'Toole is. He was a young man when he made this and he aged 40 years in the movie and he manages not only to look older, but to act so incredibly well. You believe he is an old man. The story about a strict school professor who becomes a better person through the love of a woman is kind of predictable, but it is truly irresistible.

The little kid may have hated this movie. But the middle age man loves it. Get it on DVD!

Free Summer afternoons, "yeah, right"

The agency that I worked at has a policy of working on Summer Fridays until 1pm. I wish they didn't. Because it's a joke. Our clients are a disorganized, chaotic, inept bunch. So it's impossible to go home early. In fact, this policy ruins my Fridays because I am constantly thinking that "maybe this Friday" I will be able to go home and spend an afternoon at the beach. And just when it seems it will happen, some jerk forgot about an ad and it's a rush job, and there goes my Friday afternoon.
So I beg the people at the agency to stop this nonsense. Creating false expectations is cruel. It's awful.

less time online

I am realizing I am spending way too much time online. And what bothers me is that I am spending too much time online, wasting time. I barely write on this blog which is a kind of creative use of the net. No, I am watching stupid videos and visiting stupid sites. So I am making a bow to cutting my online time at home to less than 30 minutes a day. I want to go back to reading books, watching movies, going out for walks, seeing friends. So I make a bow of less than 30 minutes online a day. I will probably not keep it, but I am giving it a shot.

Almost disaster

Today while leaving for lunch I almost had a terrible traffic accident. A truck that was sitting by highway decided to get into the highway just as I was passing by. It was so close to being a disaster. I got incredibly mad at the driver and proceeded to go to lunch. Then as I was sitting there eating my sandwich, it struck me just how close I came to injury. For close to 30 seconds, I lost it. I closed my eyes with a mixture of anger and terror but with a realization of just how plain lucky I was. I could have been in a hospital. I could have been dead. But there I was, having my lunch. I am not a religious man, but just in case, I thanked God for being there.

Valerie

I find it interesting that the article that consistently gets hits on my blog is the one I wrote about obscure French actress Valerie Quennessen. It seems there are a lot of people who were struck by her beauty and charm in the very few movies she made before her death in 1989. My favorite has always been "French Postcards", a movie about American students spending a year of college in Paris. This is the movie that shows her at her best. You have to fall in love with her in this one. As she seduces the American student. she is seducing every viewer. She also made an awful, although some consider it a guilty pleasure, called "Summer Lovers" She spends most of the movie nude, so I can't say I hate it. Then she retired and died in a traffic accident 7 years later.
Gone, but not forgotten. At least by the people who visit my blog.

The Girlfriend Experience on Onelink cable tv

Onelink's HD Net Movies is showing excellent independent movies BEFORE they are shown on theaters. And last night I saw Steven Sodenberg;s new movie "The Girlfriend Experience". This movie is a kind of back to his roots as director of "Sex, Lies and Videotape", the movie that made him famous. It's basically a character study. This time of a high priced call girl and the people around her. It's a fascinating look into that world. One thing also makes it interesting. The call girl is played by a hard core porno actress named Sasha Grey. And she is very good playing a woman who decides she wants this kind of life. And the movie makes the point (but not in an too obvious way) that any type of work is a kind of prostitution.

I am not a Sodenberg fan. I like some of his movies, despise some of them. But al least, he is a director that takes chances. And if you're in the mood and want some intelligent cinema for 75 minutes (it's pretty short for a regular movie), you can do worse than seek out "The Girlfriend Experience". It won't be shown on HD Net Movies anymore, but you can catch it on Onelink Video On Demand or 4 months from now at Fine Arts Cafe.

"Stranded"

Their story has been a kind of obsession of mine. "Alive" was the first adult book I remember reading. And I am very much fascinated by theri story. I am talking, of course, of the Uruguayan students whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972 and had to resort to eating the flesh of the dead. And I'm not fascinated so much by the gruesomeness of it, but by the humanity they represented. The idea that surviving is the most important thing in the world and that our instinct for survival can be so amazing.

So this week I saw the documentary "Stranded" in which survivors tell their story. It is so interesting to see them talking to camera, explaining 30 years later, how they felt. Most of it I had read in various books, but listening to them made it more intimate and frankly, more human.

But one thing stuck with me this time around. Towards the end of the documentary a helicopter travesl the distance from where the plane crash to where the survivors finally found civilization. And someone says that someone would have needed super human strength, proper equipment and much training to have been able to climb those mountains. And yet these men did it half starved to death and without even a rope for equipment. Another aspect of this incredible story was revealed.

This is one excellent documentary.

Awful movies

When I was a kid I used to love Terence Hill movies. I thought the Trinity westerns were so cool. Well , the other day the cable channel Encore Westerns showed a Terence Hill movie that I adored way back. It's "Man of the East", an Italian western from 1974. I recall I dragged my mom and dad to see it and I came out of the theater thinking it was the coolest movie ever. So last night I decided to embark on a nostalgia trip. I was going to watch a movie I had not seen for 30 years. I didn't make it past the 15 minute mark. I hated every minute of it. The comedy was broad and stupid. Everything about it was just so amazingly awful. I usually find something to like in movies I saw as a kid, but I couldn't find anything here. I ended up watching some nature documentaries to compensate for the mind numbing 15 minutes of "Man of the East".

Which makes me want to thank my mom and dad. I can imagine how they felt watching this movie with me. Made me realize again how wonderful they are.

Roadsinger

There are ceratin routines that I still carry from my youth. And one of them is buying a CD from a favorite artist the very day it comes out. I know this is incredibly old fashioned, but I still like the idea of physically owning the CD. I read the small booklet and the lyrics and I like looking at the list of musicians involved. I also like seeing the artwork. Somehow a cd should be a complete work of artistic expression.

So yesterday I went through my routine and bought the new Cat Stevens cd. I am still looking at the artwork. Then I will listen to the music. A routine I love.

Iris

I had plans to see a few movies I had rented from Netflix, but eneded up doing other things and only saw one. It was a movie called "Iris" from a few years back. It stars Kate Winslet and Dame Judi Dench as young and old author Iris Murdoch. It is a movie about a carefree woman and her life with her supportive husband and it is intercut with her later life as she loses her mind to Alzheimer's. Winslet is wonderful as the young Iris in all her wildness. Dame Judi Dench is heartbreaking as a woman who suddenly is unable to do the most simple things. And Jim Broadbent is amazing as her husband , who despite Iris infidelities with men and women, stands by her side. It is a sad movie, but Iris's enjoyment of life in her youth makes you realize that despite the sad eneding, she did enjoy life.

8:30 am

My boss recommended me a new camera the other day. It's the CanonG10. And i decided to test it by taking some photos at the beach the other morning. And it does feel like a great camera. And I was able to capture the world of the Ocean Park beach at 8:30 am. The people practicing beach volleyball. The people walking or the ones just sitting there, looking at the ocean, maybe meditating. It's a wonderful, quiet little world. And one that I hope to capture again.

why I don't go to movies anymore

I used to love going to the movies on Saturday afternoons. Usually to the Metro in Santurce. I would go in, catch a flick at 2pn and leave around 4:30pm. But these days I can't. Just look at the garbage mainstream movies that are playing. "Wolverine", a movie concentrating on a character from the mediocre at best "X-Men' movies. A movie aimed at 14 year olds. Then there's the Beyonce vehicle "Obsessed", the one millionth variation on the "Fatal Attraction" plot, that was itself a replica of "Play Misty for Me". Haven't people seen this stupid plot too many times? Maybe not. Since it was the #1 movie of last week. Oh, right, it's aimed at 14 year olds and 14 years old were not born when the whole femme fatale, erotic thriller cycle happened, So I will watch a movie I rented from Netflix and enjoy it at home. My own Saturday matinee at home. But somehow it isn't the Metro theater. Still, a movie fan has to see a movie on Saturday afternoons.